C. H. Lear was born in 1818 and could not have drawn the PRA ad vivum. The drawing is clearly based on the head in Lawrence's 1821 whole-length in the Wadsworth Athenaeum of which there is a replica in the Tate Gallery engraved by C. Rolls 1842. It probably dates from 1845-6 when Lear was sending similar drawings of Royal Academicians home to his father (see Richard Ormond, National Portrait Gallery: Early Victorian Portraits, 1973, p 561). The engraving by Rolls would have been the most likely source.

Given by John Elliot 1907, see Richard Ormond, National Portrait Gallery: Early Victorian Portraits, 1973, pp 561-2.

This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.